Monday, August 8, 2011

In case anybody's curious as to what caused the huge dust cloud on Turn 1 about 12 minutes into the 4th B group session Friday night here's the video of my crash. After watching the video a million times and talking to different people the consensus seems to be that the small rocks and dirt on the outside of the turn caused me to go down when I turned the bike in after running too deep on the brakes. To avoid the crash I should have done one of two things differently:

1. If I had turned into the racing line as usual, albeit carrying a bit more speed (for me), I most likely would have been fine.

2. If I had stayed on the brakes and continued in a straight line, not turning in once I entered the junk, I most likely would have stayed up, even if I ran off the track a little.

I was able to walk away with just minor bumps and bruises. To be safe I went to University Hospital to get checked out after I had a short period of fuzziness in my left eye, and was released with a mild concussion and no restrictions on activity. I could have ridden Saturday had my bike and helmet been up to it, but my left fairing is pretty worked, as are my frame sliders, clutch lever, and footpeg.

I'm going to replace the factory plastic with race plastic (probably Hotbodies as they are running a 2 for 1 special in August) so the bike will be track only going forward.

My leathers need a few patches, and I'll need to buy a new helmet, but overall I think it was a good learning experience.

This was my 4th track day but it won't be my last. Assuming the bike comes together I'll be at the Apex track day on September 5th to check out the full track!